Food for your eyes!

Tumbled upon some inspirational photo works and thought I would share with you all. Photos & Visual Art by Christopher Gilbert (I like the vases in the basement carpark!)


Smokes? Anyone? Well, you do not need to be a smoker to appreciate vintage cigarettes pack designs. Check out a huge collection here.

Almost Bed-ridden

Suffered from major abdominal cramp for the entire morning yesterday, effects from the ice-blended green tea I had on Friday evening. Despite an hour of heat pad application, the torture did not end. Eventually, I was left with no better choice but to take panadol after a hot milo. Guess I better learn the lesson and remember today.

Not much activities due to my energy-drained-out body. It was until evening when I dine out with bf at the duck rice stall located near Pasir Panjang Village. We were also wanting to watch Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift but had no chance getting seats. But since there are no more good movies for next week, we decided that we could catch that show later. No hurry :P

At last, we drove to carrefour with the intention of stocking up another white wine. Also, we managed to find salsa dip. Seems like we are all ready for wine and snacks any time. :)

Too dark to be seen

Was not in a really good shape, hence a rest from work today. Enjoyed dinner with a bunch of ex-colleagues at Plaza Singapura and our gathering ended after drinks at Starbucks. The meeting was filled with gossips and teases, especially towards our NSman friend. He has got a cool new hairstyle and is now so tanned compared to before. But after all I must admit the admiration I have for guys who go through tough mental and physical trainings during NS. I know that is something I have not experienced and is probably not capable of doing.

Yup, my friend here. Too dark to be seen.

Lady in the Water

It was quite a disappointing movie from M. Night Shyamalan. The plot was not even close to his standards, basing on The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village and Signs.

Let me describe the movie in simple words. A movie relying on pure imagination, which in my opinion, is rather senseless. Missing of depth in the story or characters.

Will be looking forward to other movies. Luckily I spent only $8 on a wednesday to watch this.

Yellow Lines in Singapore

Have you all realised that there are more and more yellow lines recently? I guess the most common one that comes to many's mind is the MRT platform yellow line, which comes along with loud, multi-languaged reminders: "For your own safety, please stand behind the yellow line. (and again) Please stand behind the yellow line. Thank you." This is one of the irritating things I hear every weekday mornings. I personally feel that those are redundant.

Do we need yellow lines before our home lifts(maybe on every floors?), as the doors may catch our fingers or close on us? And yellow arrows like those on MRT platforms, so that people entering the lift can give way to those exiting?

Yellow lines are also widely used to mark the X junctions on roads and of course the double yellow lines, which may have once caused you fines with summon tickets issued. These are appropriate and useful as they ensure road safety, even at night. About a month back, I took notice of yellow lines near the edge of walking pavements beside traffic lights. Do pedestrians need yellow lines to tell that standing out of pavement is dangerous and irresponsible?

The last type that I can think of. Yellow lines for smoking area markings. Yellow boxes have been used to indicate designated smoking areas in army camps, as well as in eating places now, in accordance to this month's new smoking ban.

A number of things that might to be marked yellow(in future, or already marked?):
-Designated spots for burning of incense papers during Hungry Ghost Festivals
- Before lifts so that we will not get ourselves hurt from lift doors and also with yellow arrows near the door sides so that we will remember to give way to alighting users
- Designated spots that newstands are allowed to park and extend their displays within
- Areas where we are allowed to pitch tents or place picnic mats in parks
- Queue lines before the ezlink self-help machines so that we can wait orderly for our turn

Have I missed out any?

Are you an apple or pear?

I was digging in 'Eat, Drink and Be Healthy' (EDBH), when I learnt that people with apple-shaped bodies are more prone to heart diseases than people with pear-shaped bodies. The reason behind is that fats stored in the upper body parts, between chest and waist especially, are more more active than fats found in thighs and hips. If there are equally amount of fats in all over your body, haha, time to increase the number of calories burnt per day. Don't let your muscles become fats, coz according to EDBH it is much easier to prevent weight gain than to lose weight. In worst cases, the change from muscles to fats could be irreversible! Start moving and eat healthy.

Rosemount Estate 2003 Sauvignon Blanc

It was a no-nice-movie Friday. After having thai-style fish head for dinner, me and bf went to Sheng Shiong Supermarket on foot. We bought watermelon, honey dew and chips, so that we could munch while having wine.

Soon after we reach back bf's place, WJ and M called to meet at Tong Shui West Coast. Heard from M that she is expecting to deliver her baby girl in one and a half months time.

Once we headed back, I cut up the fruits while bf prepared the wine glasses and cork screw. Below the block, we sat by the pool to drink and eat. The medium-bodied wine was fruity, with hint of passionfruit, which went well with the fresh fruits and chips. No drink and drive, so I took a cab home after a bite at Macs.

Home-baked Butter Cookies

Completed a 3rd run of 950km last evening. Body fatigue took over my mind before I could reach my 1.2km finish line. Following by was arm training, which I managed to do a set more than previous session, and lastly after recovery I took another slow jog.

Experienced extra soreness right after the arm exercises yesterday and I thought I have over-exerted the arm muscles. In my mind, I was prepared to wake up this morning with upper arm and shoulder aches. Surprisingly, I did not. And I guess that's good. :P

Just received some orders for butter cookies. Decided to get down to baking this weekend. Are you interested? It's $8 for a tub of about 25-30 pcs, I think, for I did not really count. So far, this is the only photo of my cookies, borrowed from photographer Ml. For your viewing pleasure.

Lunch at Tong Shui Cafe

Oops, I heard Tong Shui Cafe Bugis was already opened yesterday. Went by with my colleagues to have lunch there. The serving time was longer than usual, from my experience so far. I had the Sichuan Fish Rice with Ice Cappucino with Coke again. I just love the salted egg :P~

Too bad I did not have my camera along with me. Less temptations for you all too. Hee. Ml, hope your baked rice wasn't that bad after all. You should feedback to them, ask them to pour in more soft cheese to the dish. Anyway, we are sort of neighbours now, shouldn't we help them improve? This way they can fight with the Ah-chew expensive and small-serving desserts.

I can afford the time to update blog again. Nothing major at work and I have just completed my first CSS attached html page. It's merely a learn-how-to-do page though. Maybe I would attempt a new blog style by writing CSS from scratch. Maybe.

Updated:
Before I forget, there is another issue for Tong Shui Cafe. Their charges are rather strange, neither 5% nor 10% exactly. Perhaps anyone could understand it, coz Ml and I don't.

$38.30 x 105% = $40.22
$38.30 x 110% = $42.13 (Almost?)

And what's hold bill? I guess we probably need somebody who has worked as a cashier before to explain this to us.

Credits to Ml. She found out about this and highlighted it. :)

Self-prepared Pasta

After work on Tuesday, I attempted a second run, followed by some arm exercises. My muscles were still sore from first run and I almost had a cramp on the left calf muscle. But in the next morning, all sores seem to have subsided with rather rapid muscles recovery. The back of my upper arms felt slightly achy though.

Intended to eat in for lunch yesterday, so I woke up early to prepare and pack pasta with ham in the morning. This only needed some instant mushroom cream soup to eat with.

Oh ya, saw that Tong Shui Cafe Bugis's progress. Fixtures are fully put up. I can already see the oriental style stools and table linings. I'm just waiting to update you all on the day it's officially opened.

A Day's Workout

I have not been exercising for a long time but I did not exactly planned for the day's activities. My day began after noon as I was awakened by bf's call. After a quick home lunch, I met up with bf and headed to Jurong Country Club, where I managed to hit 100 golf balls off its driving range.

We headed back to bf's house to unload the clubs and bags. The sun was scorching hot, so we visited a nearby eatery for iced cold drinks. There, I thought to make my body work further, since I was already prepared to sweat.

I went for a 1.2km run and completed with quite some difficulty, in breathing especially. After which i took a rest, before proceeding to practise some tennis strokes and footworks with bf.

Before and after each of the physical exertions, I performed thorough body stretchings. Unfortunately, I can feel the muscle sores coming. Overworked this time I guess, after all the slackness.

Girlfriend +10?

Yes, I will be looking forward to the next Pirates of the Carribean too. Captain Jack Sparrow is gone for the time being, but I guess he will be back soon. He's a real funny character. I like his eye-lined, smoky eyes. :P

Managed to watch the 2 movies one after another from Friday 10pm to Saturday 3am. Well, with a little interval and travelling time from Cineleisure to GV Tiong Bahru Plaza. The purpose of changing cinemas were to move west, which is nearer to home, and at the same time avoid full-theatre crowds. As expected, many popular cinemas were filled up all the way to the front row. It was a Friday night with a popular and suitable-for-all-audience kind of movie. That is why.

Went Ikea for dinner last evening. Had swedish meatballs drenched in their special cream sauce, served with lingonberry jam and fries. Me and bf wanted to digest food in our bloated stomachs, hence we took a walk to Queensway Shopping Centre.

Not sure if you visit the QSC often, but there is this large Adidas poster ad just outside the entrance facing the main road junction.

I witnessed, either an obessed-with-adidas-ad or an obsessed-with-girlfriend guy trying to snap a photo of his girlfriend standing in front of the ad to replace Jose's backview. In other words, a snapshot of all football players standing in front of his girlfriend.

I figured that he must be tired of stagnant life just like us, except that his boredom is of a much higher extent. Trust me, I would have taken a picture of them if I had brought my camera with me. And no, I don't own a camera phone. Too bad.

Oh ya, I missed snapshots of the Haagen Dazs' Divine Scoops that me and bf had too. Coffee, green tea and brandied cherries ice cream, topped with caramel sauce and fresh strawberries, filled my stomach to its top. Yummy sweet stuff.

Found Bugis Tong Shui!

Have you visited the Tong Shui Cafe I have previously written about? Were you looking out for the Bugis branch like me and ML?

A nearby Sudanese eatery has moved out 2 days ago and the unit has been taken over by Tong Shui. I rejoiced when I saw the banner with familiar colours hung outside the renovation site. So where is the 'nearby'?

This unit can be found along Liang Seah Street, within walking distance of Bugis Junction and Bugis Mrt station. It is a small street that lies directly opposite of Shaw Tower.

To date, they have only painted the walls pink and yellow, and set up the kitchen partition. I believe they still need a few days to set up the place. Will keep you posted once the place is ready. :D

Rainy Friday Morning

Went straight to bed last night after doing the laundry. I figure it was around 12midnight when I entered dreamland, which means I had 7 hours of rest. That should give me enough energy for a Friday!

I opened my eyes this morning and was awaiting the Friday mood to pour in when I heard heavy rainfalls outside my room window. Totally regretted that I couldn't snuggle up further.

Friday is our last workday of the week, our casual dressing day as well as the day we can enjoy our nights out. Friday had also seemed to be the chosen day for matinees and screenings. I do not wish to vilify the instigator, so depends on how you view it; it can mean reducing your Friday's working hours, or spoiling your Friday's lunch plans or arrangements to go off on the dot.

Have you watched Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest? It's out!

I'm Lieutenant-Colonel Jenny of the High Seas, you?

Bagged 2 pieces of footwear from VNC citylink during lunchtime yesterday, plus I placed an order for a third one. :D They did not have stock for a colour of the shoe I fancied but would be transferring it from another outlet. Rather efficient service I should say; the shoe has been transferred yesterday evening. I have planned to collect it during lunch later.

In accordance with the new movie - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, you might be interested to find out your Pirate name!
http://www.blogthings.com/piratenamegenerator/

Heatiness Detected

I can feel in my nose the gush of body heat. My throat still sores and the ulcer has grown enormous causing unbearable pain below my tongue. I now face difficulty eating or even swallowing my saliva. Wanted to snap a photo of it but I thought it wasn't wise. Too gross.

My back gum swell has subsided a little compared to yesterday. At least now I can close up my jaw properly. I guess the Listerine rinse yesterday helped slightly.

Dropped by the library today. After many fruitless searches, I managed to pick up a book – ‘Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda’ by Susan E Cook. Exactly what I wanted.

It is quite a share of political materials for me lately, from the office’s Loose Change lunch matinee to recent articles I’ve read. Coming up, there is another one. One which might disrupt my Friday evening plan, if I am having one. I must admit I never like politics but I guess to have an all round life knowledge, I cannot afford to neglect it. Moreover, that approaching political screening is within working premises and working hours. What can I say?

A stay-home Saturday afternoon

Slept at 4am this morning. Managed to start off my day with brunch at 12plus noon. Spent the after lunch hours mopping my place and getting my desktop to function again. Well, I only unpowered my DVD writer and the system stopped hanging. No more promptings of hardware failure or physical memory dumps. Was it a DVD writer fault? Or maybe hardware conflict? Pure guessing. I made up my mind to leave the system working this way. A transient solution for I do not require the function of the drive at this time. How lazy I am.

Refreshed from a cool shower, I surfed and read about Khmer Rouge and Cuba's Fidel Castro regime. I am self-aware that my history knowledge is shallow. For that reason, I found myself struggling in related conversations. Plus, I believe I could use those read-ups as some lessons and reflections. Set my mind to dig in on more genocide articles this week.

Meeting up Poly guys for dinner later. It has been ages since we last met. One is at work now and the other claims to be groggy from a major hangover. Hope all turn up punctually later.

Consequences of Chocolate Indulgence

Damage by previous chocolates:
Persistant sore throat, swollen left back gum and a tongue ulcer. :x

Had an opportunity to practise my sewing yesterday. Helped bf sew tag on his uniform. To my satisfaction, I sewed tight and neat stitches. :D

Started a new word bank. Felt the desperate need to improve my English.

Is Singaporean's max feet size 8?

After this period of lunch-ins, my temptations took over me today. Decided to lunch out and do some shopping, since pay is already in, I thought. Filled my stomach with Long John Silvers coleslaw, chicken and fish. Oh, did not left out the oil-soaked fries too. Took a walk to OG Bugis, started a search for great shoe deals.

To my dismay, they bring in extremely limited size 9 shoes. In my knowledge, only VNC, Novo and Bata offers shoes for my gigantic feet. And my feet might not even fit in a small cut size 9. Sad thing for me. Other shoe solutions that I can think of would mean higher cost. :( Argh.. Any ill-fated feets out there like mine? Where do you hunt for footwear that fits?



Despite the sore throat I found myself having this morning, I got myself some Droste Pastills Milk and Nuts chocolates and ate it to my heart's content. Consequences thrown out of my mind for today. We'll see tomorrow. No, not tomorrow.sg. I mean the day that follows.

Into the second half of 2006

Month of July is here. A flip of my calendar page. I am nearer to end of the year.

Some reflections on the first half of the year: Was not as productive at work compared to six months earlier. Rather high sick counts recorded during the starting months of the year but nothing major so far, fortunately. Have slacked down a lot on exercising, irregular sleep due to some family stress and of course world cup. No signs of extreme luck in the past six months but it does not seem to be better than average either.

Have worked my way through the savings as planned but I believe I can do better. Gained higher self-awareness and control over near future. Managed to spend more time on reading and droved my way to a license. Picked up daily bread and absorbed some of the bible writings. Interacted with a few christians, believed and understood more on their faith and inner peace.

The approach to the second half of the year: Settle for the actual plan for near future. Upgrade my knowledge to aid the reach of goal. Open up thoughts, know more friends. Most importantly, maintain the health and prepare the body for the battle ahead.

Second half of the year has always appeal to me more with the year end holidays, cooler climate as well as a possible bonus pay. The past month's rain and shine has been inconsistent compared to previous years. More cooler days and good-for-snuggles rainy nights ahead, I hope.

But just as we are entering July, World Cup is reaching an end. Too soon for us to realise, we just counted down to the opening match, ya? I guess so.